Musical rocking chair



g- 30, 1955 R. R. SMITH 2,716,444

MUSICAL ROCKING CHAIR Filed March 26, 1953 INVENTOR fio GER R. SM/TH ATTO R EY ice MUSICAL ROCKING CHAIR' Roger R. Smith, Gardner, Mass.

Application March 26, 1953, Serial No. 344,704

4 Claims. (Cl. 155188) This invention relates to what I term musical. rocking chairs, designed primarily for use by children, wherein a musical movement is mounted in connection with the leg and rocker structure of the chair for intermittent actuation in the operation of rocking the chair back and the seat of the chair to facilitate compact packaging of the complete unit for shipment, storage, or other puroses.

p The novel features of the invention will be best understood from the following description, when taken to gether with the accompanying drawing, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosed and, in which, the separate parts are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views and, in which:

Fig. 1 is a sectional view through a rocking chair made according to my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the knock-down assemblage of the chair preparatory to boxing for shipment; and

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic detailed side view of the musical movement which I employ, with parts of the construction broken away.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, I have shown a rocking chair structure which comprises a seat having a rounded forward edge 11. 12 designates the backrest of the chair which comprises heavy side posts or rails v 13 and smaller diameter transversely spaced rails 14,

rails 13 and 14 being arranged over the rear portion of the seat 10 and are coupled in a backrest panel 15 at their upper ends. At 16 is shown arm rests which extend forwardly from the rails 13 and terminate in downwardly extending rounded ends 17. The arm rests 14 are supported on the seat by vertical rods 18 and 19.

At 20 is shown a leg and rocker frame unit which comprises a pair of rockers 21, each rocker having upwardly directed and longitudinally spaced leg members 22, the leg members being joined and braced substantially centrally thereof by cross rods 23. The front and rear leg members 22 are joined at their ends in cross cleats or straps 24 having spaced apertures 25 therein for the reception of screws to secure the unit 20 to the lower surface of the seat 10, with the straps or cleats substantially in the position shown in Fig. 1 of the drawmg.

The structure will be so made that the unit 21} is readily attachable and detachable with respect to the seat 10, so that the unit 20 can be disposed within the upper portion of the chair in the manner diagrammatically illustrated in Fig. 2 of the drawing, for packaging of the knock-down chair in a box or carton of relatively small size to facilitate shipment thereof. It will thus be apparent that the straps or cleats 24, as well as the arrangement of the legs 22, will be such as to fit within the arms 16 of the chair in the manner illustrated. It is also preferred that the over-all dimensions of the rockers 21' be within the width of the arms 16 and the distance between the bottom of the seat 10 and thetop of the cross panel 15 of the chair, so that the knockdown arrangement will fit snugly within a rectangular package or carton.

Assembled with the rocker unit 20 is a musical movement 26 comprising an' instrumentportion 27 and an operating rod 28, the latter having aball end 29; A- pair of eyes 30 are employed to couple the rod 28 with one of the rear legs 22 to dispose the rod 28 on the inner surface of the leg with the lower end portion 31 of the rod in position to extend below the lowersurface of one of the rockers 21, as clearly indicated in Fig. 1 of the drawing.

The musical movement, as shown, comprises a frame 32 having a bearing block 33 for the support of a reed bar 34 of a predetermined musical tune when operating upon a pinned cylinder shown in part at 35, some of the pins being indicated at 36. In other words, in a complete cycle of rotation of the cylinder 35, one tune will be completed, such for example as the tune Rockabye Baby. The cylinder 35 is mounted on a shaft 37 having suitable bearing support in the frame as indicated at 38.

Atone end of the cylinder is a ratchet disc 39 which is intermittently rotated by a pair of spring pressed pawls 40, 41, the pawls being pivoted on the pivots 42, 43 of a lever structure employing. two pairs of links which are pivoted together on the pivots 42, 43, one pair of links 44 being pivoted on the shaft 37, whereas the other pair of links 45 are pivoted as seen at 46 to a curved operating shoe 47, having a longitudinal; groove or recess 48 in its outer surface in which the ball end 29 of the rod 23 operates.

The shoe 47 is spring tensioned so as to normally extend the end 49 thereof downwardly; in other words, to normally support the levers 44, 45 in the extended position illustrated in Fig. 3 of the drawing. In this position, the ball 29 will be actuated to support the end 31 of the rod in position extending below the lower surface of the rocker. Thus, as the rocker is rocked rearwardly the rod 29 is actuated to operate the shoe 47 and the levers 44, 45, and in this operation the pawl 41 will rotate the ratchet 39, Whereas in the upward movement of the levers through the spring which actuates the shoe 47 and the rod 28, the pawl actuates the ratchet 39, and in a series of rocking movements of the chair and through intermittent continued rotation of the cylinder 35 by the pawls 41, 40, the complete tune will be played on the reeds 34.

It will be understood that in the aforesaid intermittent operation of the musical movement, the pawls 40, 41 will tensionally ride over the ratchet 39 when the ratchet is being driven by an opposed pawl. Thus, the instant one pawl ceases its operation of rotation of the ratchet, the other pawl is in position to continue this rotation.

It will also be apparent that the musical movement is mounted on one of the straps or cleats 24 in a position adjacent one of the legs 22, thus keeping the movement within the environment of the cleat and leg as much as possible. At the same time, this facilitates the mounting of the rod of the movement on said adjacent leg in the manner illustrated in Fig. 1 of the drawing.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In a knock-down rocking chair, comprising a chair frame and a rocker unit detachable with respect to said frame, said unit comprising a pair of rockers, each rocker having a pair of spaced leg members, one leg member being a front leg member and the other a rear leg mem- Patented Aug. 30, 1955,

ber, means joining and spacing the front and rear leg members of both rockers in forming said unit, the spacing of the rockers being such as to maintain the rocker unit within the Width of the seat of said seat frame, upper ends of the front and rear leg members being joined solely by transverse cleats, and each of said cleats having spaced apertures for reception of fastener devices in detachable mounting of the rocker unit in connection with the chair frame.

2. In a knock-down rocking chair, comprising a chair frame and a rocker unit detachable with respect to said frame, said unit comprising a pair of rockers, each rocker having a pair of spaced leg members, one leg member being a front leg member and the other a rear leg member, means joining and spacing the front and rear leg members of both rockers'in forming said unit, the spacing of the rockers being such as to maintain the rocker unit Within the width of the seat of said seat frame, upper ends of the front and rear leg members being joined solely by transverse cleats, each of said cleats having spaced apertures for reception of fastener devices in detachable mounting of the rocker unit in connection with the chair frame, and the length of said cleats being such as to fit Within side boundaries of the chair frame in compact assemblage of the rocker unit upon the shipment of the knock-down assemblage.

3. A rocking chair, comprising a rocker leg unit, detachable with the chair, said unit comprising a pair of rockers, each rocker having a pair of upstanding front and rear leg members, means spacing and bracing the front leg members substantially centrally thereof, means spacing and bracing the rear leg members substantially centrally thereof, upper ends of the front and rear leg members being united and braced solely by transverse cleats, each cleat having spaced apertures for detachable mounting of the rocket unit with the remainder of the chair, a musical movement mounted solely on said unit and fixed to one of said cleats adjacent one rear leg member and including an operating rod extending along said rear leg member, means fixed to said rear leg member at spaced intervals for guiding and supporting said rod, and the lower end of said rod being normally supported in position extending beyond the lower surface of one of the rockers of said unit.

4. In a knockdown rocking chair, comprising a chair frame and a rocker unit detachable with respect to said frame, said unit comprising a pair of rockers, each rocker having a pair of spaced leg members, one leg member being a front leg member and the other a rear leg member, means joining and spacing the front and rear leg members of both rockers in forming said unit, the spacing of the rockers being such as to maintain the rocker unit within the width of the seat of said seat frame, upper ends of the front and rear leg members being joined solely by transverse cleats, each of said cleats having spaced apertures for reception of fastener devices in detachable mounting of the leg and rocker unit in connection with the chair frame, the length of said cleats being such as to fit Within side boundaries of the chair frame in compact assemblage of the rocker unit upon the chair frame in shipment of the knockdown assemblage, and a musical movement mounted on and constituting a part of said rocker unit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 396,963 Stone Jan. 29, 1889 924,353 Horton June 8, 1909 1,297,718 Mueller Mar. 18, 1919 1,394,393 Zubryd Oct. 18, 1921 2,251,141 Lehman July 29, 1941 2,530,474 Lutes Nov. 21, 1950 2,623,430 Haselton Dec. 30, 1952 

